Brockley Nick here. Shameless plug for one of my clients today. The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering is a new global £1 million prize, which will be awarded to the individual or team responsible for the most significant engineering achievement in the world. Nominations open today, via the website.

As I write, Professor Brian Cox and Dr Eleanor Stride are seducing the nation into pursuing a career in engineering from the BBC Breakfast sofa (we need to produce another 2 million of them to remain competitive) while Lord Browne is delivering a similar message on the Today Programme. You can read the BBC report here too.

It's a long shot that Brockley will produce the winner, but most of the BC readers we've encountered (the ones who don't work in marketing and the media) seem to be engineering consultants. You never know.

12
comments:

THNIck
said...

Brian Cox on engineering, why? Is it too much work for the BBC to think of someone relevant everytime they need a talking head, rather "ooh, it's a bit science/technology-ish, and we're all arts graduates, get that Brian Cox, he does Physics and it's all the same thing".Still, at least it's not Carol Vorderman.

Depnds on what the purpose of the award is, if it's to propmote engineering and encourage bright youngsters who may not have considered it then it's perfectly credible to get a person with a high TV profile. There are plenty of respected but fusty trade award out there already and few, if any, engineers work with the intention of getting one. My old company got several Queens Awards for Inovation. You get a flag outside the site and a few lines in the broadsheets if you're lucky.

Anyway, Brian Cox works at CERN which is as much about the engineering as the science. He's a credible figure.

Depnds on what the purpose of the award is, if it's to propmote engineering and encourage bright youngsters who may not have considered it then it's perfectly credible to get a person with a high TV profile. There are plenty of respected but fusty trade award out there already and few, if any, engineers work with the intention of getting one. My old company got several Queens Awards for Inovation. You get a flag outside the site and a few lines in the broadsheets if you're lucky.

Anyway, Brian Cox works at CERN which is as much about the engineering as the science. He's a credible figure.

Considering my boss recently sold his company for 400 million and most private investment companies will be wanting more than a million in return for there investment. Add to that the amount of money we've bailed the banks out to.

I some how feel like I've been offered a penny chew for what they're asking for?

"The new global £1M prize will recognise world-changing advances in engineering that have made a difference to humanity."

Probably not that many - as an engineer you've a better chance than most of a job at the end of it.

Went to a debate recently on engineering and the risk of climate change. The discussion was not whether or not engineering was involved in the solutions we need to find, but whether engineering alone was enough or whether there needed to be a change in politics and mind-set as well.